Perth’s hotel rooms emptier as resource sector slows

A decline in domestic corporate travel is behind Perth's hotels experiencing the lowest occupancy rate since June 2011 according to data released by Deloitte today.

According to the data, Perth's hotel occupancy rates for the year to March fell to 83.8 per cent with business travel nights in Perth also declining by more than 20 per cent over the same period.

Deloitte Access Economics' Lachlan Smirl attributed the easing off of Perth's occupancy rate to the phasing out of the mining boom.

"Growth in occupancies and room rates in markets associated with mining-related corporate travel, such as Brisbane and Perth, is forecast to be more subdued than in recent years, as the resource-related construction boom reaches its peak," he said.

Deloitte did say however, that the decline in business visitor nights has been partly offset by the leisure market, with the volume of domestic holiday and international visitor nights growing solidly
over the last 12 months.

Perth's future occupancy rate was projected to stabilize over the next two years before dropping slightly to 83.5 per cent over the year to December 2015.

Other indicators of Perth's hotel market were set to grow with room rates forecast to increase at 6.2 per cent per annum over the next three years to December 2015, taking Perth's current room rate of $200 per night to $239.

This is still the nation's fastest growth for room rates, but is considerably slower than the pace of recent years, Deloitte said.

Revenue per available room is also forecast to grow by 5.6 per cent in Perth to December 2015, reaching $199.